Rolling doors or industrial doors are typically used to cover a building opening to prevent the passage of objects, vehicles, people, elements, sound, or heat through the opening. Rolling doors are formed, in general, of a series of horizontally elongated, narrow, slats which are pivotally connected together along their adjacent horizontal edges. Thus, the slats may be rolled up around a suitable hub or axle or, alternatively, rolled down to form an articulated curtain. Such doors are normally mounted on a window opening or a door opening. Thus, the doors are either rolled up above the opening, out of the way, or extended downwardly into the curtain formation to cover the opening.
Common uses for such rolling doors usually include providing a seal for an opening of varying shapes that can easily be held open without requiring swing space for a door. Modified versions of rolling doors have previously been configured towards providing insulation for heat or sound. The slats for such rolling doors are modified with internal materials suited for accomplishing these goals such that the size or profile of the individual slats is not noticeably increased.
Other modified versions of the rolling door have been used as window shutters in high wind storm areas; shutters are commonly used to protect window and door openings against wind hurled debris. In such storm areas, the shutters normally are kept rolled up out of the way until needed for protection.
In the past, roll-up type shutters formed of pivotally connected slats have been able to resist a limited amount of force without being penetrated. In recent years, because of severe building damages due to hurricane type storms,
Such force resistant shutters provide some limited protection of windows. Accordingly, there is still a need to provide protection from greater impact forces of those which are intentionally caused by malicious actors, such as bullet strikes. The present invention provides a solution to this and other problems, and offers other advantages over the prior art.